MPs' committee condemns parking fines system

Thursday 22 June 2006 09.23 EDT
First published on Thursday 22 June 2006 09.23 EDT

A parliamentary committee today demanded a major overhaul of Britain's parking fines, with the committee's chairwoman, Gwyneth Dunwoody, describing the system as "a mess".

The House of Commons transport committee report said a system in which parking fines were issued by police and local councils was "irrational", and called for the introduction of a single approach.

"If a motorist parks illegally on one street, they are branded a criminal and will be dealt with by the police and criminal courts," Ms Dunwoody said. "On another street, they will have committed a civil infringement and will be processed by the local authority.

"It is high time to move to a single system of parking enforcement. But this rollout of decriminalised parking enforcement must take place in the context of improved professional standards."

The extensive report described the system of providing incentives to wardens meeting targets on the numbers of tickets issued as "misguided", saying it resulted in over-zealousness and misjudgment.

The committee also heard that some local councils were putting parking managers under pressure to meet financial targets because revenue from the issuing of fines was critical to overall local authority budgets.

It had been "astounded" by the number of penalty charge notices issued but later cancelled - 20% of the 7.1m fines issued in 2003. "This is far too high a proportion and indicates that the system is malfunctioning," the report said.

It added that parking attendants needed to be better trained and better paid, saying it was "essential to raise the professionalism of those who are responsible for applying the rules ... in parallel with improving the quality of the rules themselves."

Edmund King, the executive director of the RAC Foundation, said motorists would be delighted by the recommendations.

"Over-zealous enforcement, confusing signs and lines and the belief that councils are using parking fines to raise revenue rather than keep the traffic moving should become nothing but bad memories if the government takes this report seriously," he said.

He added that he was delighted the report addressed the "scourge of cowboy clampers" and the committee's recommendation that clamping on private land should be treated in the same way as on-street clamping, with a proper code of practice and an appeals system.